University of Westminster recognised for its performance in skills, enterprise and entrepreneurship

The KEF benchmarks Westminster within a cluster of large universities with a broad discipline portfolio generating excellent research across all disciplines. Within this cluster of comparable institutions, Westminster sits in the top 40 per cent for skills, enterprise and entrepreneurship.

The result reflects the University’s increasing commitment to the expansion of professional development courses and student enterprise in recent years, and demonstrates the value that its portfolio brings to the communities it serves.

The University also performed well in IP and commercialisation as well as local growth and regeneration - placing in the top 40 per cent of the benchmark group for both perspectives.

On six of the seven perspectives evaluated in the KEF, Westminster’s cluster is in the top half of all universities in the UK. Within that group of universities, Westminster places in the top 40 per cent for the perspectives highlighted above.

The KEF was established by Research England as a way of assessing how universities benefit society and the economy through the knowledge they create.

It evaluates universities across seven perspectives and positions each university relative to others in a benchmark group. It also seeks to highlight the diversity of the sector across a wide range of Knowledge Exchange (KE) activities rather than presenting a league table.

Work to create the KEF began in 2017 with Research England assuming responsibility as part of its wider Knowledge Exchange policy and funding remit. These are the first results to emerge from the newly created framework.   

The KEF assesses universities using a number of metrics for each perspective. For example in the skills, enterprise and entrepreneurship perspective it looks at income, learner days delivered and graduate start-up rate. For the IP and commercialisation perspective it analyses the turnover of active firms and spin-outs, investment per spin-out, licensing and other IP income.

Professor Malcolm Kirkup, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of Westminster Business School, who led on the University’s submission to the KEF, said: “The KEF results reflect the increasing range of services we deliver for business, industry and wider society.  We focus on areas of research and KE where we know we can make a difference and where that difference is valued for the impact it makes.  With our programme of continuous improvement, I look forward to building further on these results for the next KEF.”

For more information please head to the KEF website.